Canopy Review: zero porosity Manta

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I got a Flight Concepts International fully zero-porosity Manta a month or so ago and wanted to
review it so that people would know about its characteristics. I have been jumping it quite a bit under different conditions for the review.

I have several complete rigs, and my newest one was made specifically to fit something large. I wanted a "workhorse" canopy that was big for easy landings with no wind and that opened really nice.

I had been talking to Lloyd "Red" Payne at FCI about this for quite some time and he told me they open nicely. I have had a number of FCI canopies over the years and my next most recent was a (low porosity) Sharpchuter (for CRW mainly.)

The canopy model called the Manta used to refer only to the low porosity 288 square foot 9 cell, but now they call the entire line by that name. They make a low porosity version, a fully zero porosity version, and a hybrid.

The zero porosity version (I think the others too) has the "tucked over" top skin to make the openings slower than the straight nose design. The pack volumn is about what I would expect, and it packs about like a new zero porosity canopy.

It flys just as I expected it to. It has a "traditional" flare like most "medium performance" canopies, meaning it does not zoom upward if you flare very vigorously, even with wraps.

I cannot stall it with normal toggle control, and with a full wrap of line round my hands I still cannot quite stall it. It is right about on the edge of stall with wraps.

What I really like about it is the opening. Very smooth deceleration, (caused somewhat of course by it being a large canopy, its large amount of fabric slowing the jumper before the canopy spreading even begins to occur.)

It does not have a "snivel" typical of many zero porosity canopies, but is a continuous deceleration and opening. On hop and pops the opening is not slow, but is proportional to the deployment speed.

It takes a second or two for the full spreading to occur and for the slider to come down after the deceleration is mostly done. Since it is rectangular, there has been no wandering of the heading on opening.

It looks like a really nice improvement on a good design, and would provide a drop zone with a student canopy with a very long life if the fully zero porosity version is chosen.

[jarrodh 0]

I jumped a Manta 288 as my first student canopy at my DZ and it had all of the characteristics you described. It was a great safe canopy that was huge but docile. I cant remember if it was ZP or f111 or a hybrid though.

Nice Review.

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[teason 0]

The ZP Mantas are also more nose high. This can translate into an easier flare for students (we know the students in particular that have a problem)

I would recommend the Hybrid Manta. They flar and behave the same as the fully ZP but students have a far easier time gathering up the canopy. The full ZP tends to squirt and the student usually drags half of it back to the hanger.

I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.

[riggerrob 561]

Last year, Pacific Skydivers operated a mixture of F-111 Mantas, ZP Mantas and hybrid Skymaster 290s.

We sold off the Skymasters and retired the F-111 Mantas, but kept a couple of ZP Mantas for heavy students (i.e pushing our 220 pound limit).
The only disadvantage with ZP Mantas is that small students take all day to come down, risking blowing into town if the winds are strong.
Nowadays, most of our students jump Solo 270s and land softly. Skymasters slightly out-perform Manatas and Solos are slightly better than Skymasters. But I still respect Mantas. Hybred or ZP are the only versions - of Mantas - that I would buy today.

Finally - to deflate a few theorists - different bottom skin fabrics make little difference in how a canopy inflates or flares. The difference is all in the top skin.
The only people who care what the bottom skin is made of are packers, which is why the majority of our school canopies have ZP top skins with F-111 bottom skins.